Customer Reviews

Chinese Posters: Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

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Say what you want about oppressive regimes, they always have the best propaganda. Art, when made to serve the purpose of convincing a population that what is going on around them is actually great and wonderful even though they are starving, produces something eerily inspiring, something that taps into a subconscious desire to believe in those in power.

This is the artwork in "Chinese Posters: Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". These are images of a bright future, where the land is abundant and serves the will of the people, where industry is clean and progressive, bringing fair income to everyone, where everyone pulls their weight with a smile and Chairman Mao shines light on us all. The art here is joyful, optimistic and hopeful. It makes you feel good to look at it. It makes you feel bad knowing that this optimistic, hopeful future never materialized, and was followed by starvation and oppression.

But this is so much more than just a picture book. The author, Ann Tompkins collected these posters while living in China during the Cultural Revolution, a full participant in Mao's glorious dream who wanted to live and work alongside the people forging this Brave New World. Reading her introduction is a bit shocking. I expected a historical critique on the nature of propaganda, not the flip side of the coin, someone who believes in the dream and remains inspired by the message.

And through her eyes, I saw these posters from a different perspective. How progressive, how revolutionary they were at the time. Here were positive images of women working in factories, firing guns and conducting scientific experiments during a time when they were expected to be house wives and mothers. Here were glorious scenes of all human beings struggling together, separated not by race, religion or gender, but bound by the brotherhood of the proletariat. The fact that it failed: is it the fault of the dream or the dreamers? This is the kind of art that makes you ask those questions.

As both an art book and a history book, "Chinese Posters" succeeds beautifully. I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting to, especially after reading the introductions and then looking at the posters in a whole new light.

This was a fascinating book, and much like David Heather's volume on North Korean propaganda provides an insight into the idealized world of propaganda from a totalitarian government's perspective. The artwork is beautiful, with visions of what a Communist government's ideal Chinese society would look like - strong, committed, loyal and modern with many noble-looking stereotypes ranging from construction workers to soldiers and even peasants. A young Chairman Mao is often depicted in these pictures along with lots of modern technology and happy-looking people.

Many of these posters were published at a time when mass communication was far less effective than now, and the internet was far less widespread in China. For many people, these images of a better China, led by a strong leader towards prosperity would have been very appealing. This book has many examples and is a terrific read.

This is a wonderful book! These posters brought my mind back to the time when I was a little boy in China. It is great to have this poster book at home to remind me the past history. Thanks again for this wonderful collection in such a great price!